( 11 ) 
Bell and Mr. Parker auA from the progress made 
hitherto, that the 4rcha8ological Saivey of Ceylon, is 
carried on under such conditions at present, may 
be completed within a period of from fifteen to twenty 
years. 
NO PROVISION AT PHESENT nECOMMENDED FOR A 
SUCCESSOR TO MR. BELL. 
If it is asked how will this survey be carried on if 
Mr. Bsll, before fifteen or twenty years are passed, 
13 unable or unwilling to remain in it, to that question 
the Committee are not prepared to give an answer. 
Mr. Boll has recommended (in his letter of July, 
1898) the appointment now of an Assistant Archaeolo- 
gical Commissioner, who, as well as both helping 
him now and acting for him in case of absence, 
should be trained to be hereafter his successor. 
He suggests that a junior member of the Civil Service 
.should bo selected for this post. 
For reasons into which they need not fully enter, 
this has not appeared to the Committee a practi- 
cable course. They do not think that an Assistant 
Commissioner will be needed to help Mr. Bell, if 
their recommendations as to the Labour Assistant 
and the Epigraphist are adopted ; and they do not 
think it practical to look, in ao limited a list of 
names as that of the younger Civil Servants, for one 
who would have both the qualifications ar.J the 
inclination essential for such an office. They would 
prefer to hope that Mr. Bell may be able for many 
y^fars to direct the work: and that if he has 
to leave it, some one may be found, by seeking 
if necessary in a wider field, to take his place. 
Should some interruption of the work inevit ibly take 
place at sueh a time, it is not a work which would 
be mined, thou^ih it could not but sutfer somewhat, 
by temporary intermission. 
The Committee conclude by expressing their con- 
viction that Your Excellency's Government may ba 
congratulated on the remits which the survey has 
thus far attained, and their hope that it will be 
efficiently carried forward. 
F. T. HoBsoN, Major-Goneral. W T. Taylor. 
R. S. Colombo. Frank Modder • 
Colombo, September 25th, 1898. 
{A Revmo from the Journal of the Roi/al Institute 
oj British Architects, Nov. 12.) 
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CEYLON. 
REPORTS X, XII, XIII, XIX. BY H. C. P. BKLL, 
C.C.S., AKCHvEOLOGICAI, COMMISSIONER, 
COLOMBO, 1893-1896. 
Report xi.ic. has been already noticed in these 
pages,'' and also some of Mr. Bell's earlier Kepoi ts.t 
These VJeports are amply illustrated with maps, 
plans, sections, and reproductions from phoio- 
graplis ; tlie reproductions, although of a very rude 
and primitive kind, yet convey a distinct enough 
idea of tlie architectural forms. Mr. Bell still 
continues his e\|)lorations at Anurailhapura. As 
this place nmy not he very familiar to most readers, 
it will perha))s he as well to reiieat that it was 
tlie ancient capital of Ceylon, and that it enjoj'cd 
that dignity for about a thousand years — that is, 
from about 500 n c. till about .")i)U a.u. Diiring 
that period tl e " Island of ( Jems " was in a nour- 
ishing state, and the resources being ])lentiful, 
large numbers of architectural structures were pro- 
duced. These included palaces, monasteries, and 
dagabas, the last mentioned inonuinents, perhaps 
vrith the excc))tion of Boro Boddor in Java, and 
one at Menguin in Burniah, being the largest of 
the kind in tlio East. Tlie remains of the old city, 
• Journal, lliih F.^bru.vry 1893. 
t Journal, 27th Angiiat 1891 ; 29th September 1893 
Bud 10th Fobroary 1894. 
which covered many miles of ground, now lie under 
an accumulation of soil and foie^i growth, the 
increase of centuries, during wlncli the i)!ace has 
been deserted. /VII this has to lie reiiioved before 
anytliing becomes visible to the e.\plorer, and still 
uiore has to be dug out in order to realise what 
has been found. Sometimes, during the monsoon, 
the ground is a swamp ; and when liiere is no rain, 
the soil becomes hard as inm, when digging is all 
but impossible. In the midist of these ditiicuUies 
Mr. Bell has been " pegging away," and tloing 
good work, but although he has cleared out a 
good many sites, it c.iiinyt be said that iie has 
come upon much that is new. 'I'iie type of each 
kind of structure had become so firmly fixed, that 
any fresh find seems to be only a repetition of 
the one that had been e.xplored betore. 
This will explain how it chances there is very 
little that is new to lecord. Ancient roads have 
been traced and these help so far in working out 
the original plan of Anuradhapura ; more copper 
plaques with inscriptions have also been come Ujioa 
and these Mr. Bell considers will be not only 
valuable for the pala?ography of Ceylon, but in 
addition they will give a sure period from which 
the dates backwards and forwards ot architectural 
remains can now be more safeiy worked out. 
In his Indian and Eastern Archil cctare, p. 219, 
Fergusson gives the jilan of a temple at AiwuUi, 
and at p. 221, the plan of a temple at Pittadkul ; 
these were first discovered and drawn by Dr. 
Burgess. Fergusson naturally attached considerable 
iinpoitance to thein from their resemulauce to the 
Cluiitya halls of the Buddhists, from which he 
tliouglit they were derived. If the plan of Vihare, 
No. 2, at Pankuliya, in Mr. Bell's Report, xiii, 
pi. xvi,, is looked at, and also Vihara, No. 2, at 
the Vijayarania monastery in Report x., pi. xii., 
the resemblance in them to tlie plans of Dr. 
Burgess appears to be very close ; tlie Pankiiliya 
example and the Pittadkul temple might be des- 
cribed as almost identical. The walls in botli 
cases are rectangular, and botli have the same 
fradaJcshina or circumambulating |iath. The Cey- 
lon structure is what the local phraseology calls 
a pi/ima-ge, or "image-house"; it contained a 
seated figure of Buddha, and does not appear to 
have been developeil from a Chaitya hall. Still, 
the type may have been derived from the South 
of India for AiwuUi is sn|iposed to date from the 
seventh century a.d., and the buildings at Pan- 
kuliya are as late as perhaps tlie ninth or tenth 
century. Still, if the Buddhists had "image-houses" 
in Ceylon, it is highly prob^.ble that they had 
similar houses or temples of that character in 
India, and that possibility raises a slight .shade 
of doubt about Fergussoli's theory of origin for 
the AiwuUi and Pittadkul temples. I do not 
consider that he was far wrong, but we had 
better wait for further discoveries in order to be 
certain of the exact conditions of the develop- 
ment. 
Writers on Indian archseology apply liie word 
" Yiliara" exclusively to the places wliere the 
Buddhist monks dwelt, to distingui-h such struc- 
tures from Chaitya halls or Stupas ; buti.i Coylou 
the same word— although slightly ditlerent in 
spelling— Yihiire, is applied to a piliynd ijc or 
image house which is a temple and not a resi- 
dence. Wishing to know exactly what this word 
means, I wrote to Professor Rhys Davids, whose 
high prolicicncv ns a Sanskrit aiilhorily is so well 
kn'owii, and I here give the answer be ha-<lkiiidly 
favoured nie with, as it may bo of value to oilicrs. 
• Report xii. p 16 
